Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat - Sylvia althaea halimodendri
On 31 December 2005 Ronald Nuiver (who also discovered the first Alpine Accentor for the Netherlands in 1986!) discovered a Lesser Whitethroat in his garden at Vinkhuizen, Groningen. The bird was trapped and ringed and DNA-samples were taken. Already at that moment it was clear the bird belonged to one of the Asian taxa of Lesser Whitethroats. The bird stayed there until 12 April 2006 and returned on 2 November and stayed until 7 April 2007. I visited the bird only on 18 February 2007.
18 February 2007, Vinkhuizen Gr; © Jan van der Laan.
18 February 2007, Vinkhuizen Gr; © Jan van der Laan.
18 February 2007, Vinkhuizen Gr; © Jan van der Laan.
This returning bird proved to be a Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat S a halimodendri based on a mtDNA analyses and was accepted as the first record for the Netherlands. The Dutch Committee for Systematics decided in 2013 to split the Lesser Whithtroat-complex into two seperate species, with the nominate Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca at one site and at the other site the Eastern forms with the polytypic Siberian Whitethroat Sylvia althaea consisting of e.g. blythi, halimodendra and margelanica.
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